FloridaMarlin

It's interesting how the perception has changed, as recently as the last couple of games. Before, the pundits were a little dismissive and of the patronising "It's nice to see them up thee, but it won't last" school of thought, and who knows, they cold well be right. But on various football talking shops over the weekend, pundits were saying; "Know what? Wouldn't it be great for the Premier League if they could stay up there?" Note their main thought is how good it would be for the Premier League (not for us as a club), but also is there a fearful thought in the back of their minds that we could maintain this, and that they are trying to cover all bases so they don't look daft at the end of the season?

MOTD2 didn't think so. They referred - with highlights - on several occasions to his poor positional play.

Lawro owned by Rachel Riley. She got that one spot on.

I like the way they assume they are going to sign Wanyama.

Do our numerous pitches include little teeny-tiny ones for when we play at White Hart Lane?

I must admit my previous affection for them was worn a little thin by the time they were in serious financial trouble and we took a full first-team down to play them in a friendly. Saints asked for no travel expenses, or anything like that, with the intention that all the money raised go to them. But instead of showing some appreciation of a gesture a neighbouring club did not have to make to help them out, their fans spent the whole game abusing our players. Don't necessarily dislike them, but won't forget that in a hurry.

Is it me, or is that the first cross that Shaw has got into the box in the 91st minute?

I see the man who invented anagrams has died. May he erect a penis.

They are asking for volunteers to turn up next week to clean and paint the training ground. Wasn't the training ground supposed to be ready for their triumphant return to the city a couple of weeks ago? Please bring your own brushes. And paint. And cleaning materials.

I think the vast majority of sensible Saints fans would prefer us to be self-sustaining, even at the risk of not breaking into the top four and competing in the Champs League. Like everybody else, I would like to believe that the FFP rules will eventually even things out so that clubs like us can compete. However, I am not naieve enough to think that the FFP rules will ever really hit the biggest clubs, who will continue to drive a coach and horses through them to maintain the differential between themselves and the others.

The obvious warmth and enthusiasm with which Kat greets Ronnie is possibly one of the most important and encouraging things seen at the club for many a year. She is loving every minute of it and while things can change, at the moment she is clearly committed to the club, the project, and her dad's legacy. Neither is she an aloof owner. I'm not sure many owners leg it down to the tunnel area to greet the manager. It's not a thing they have to do, but the fact she does it probably reassures Ronnie and makes him realise he made the right decision. She has caught the bug.

Ouch! That must have hurt Jeremy Langdon the Sky reporter. He's a p****y fan.

But even though Bury are flying high and tipped by many as promotion contenders, Awford believes there is nothing to fear.He said: ‘Just because Bury will be viewed as a team that will be up there at the end of the season, I don’t want us to go there and be cautious. ‘I don’t want us to wait – I want us to take the game to them. ‘If we were going to Man United or Arsenal, then you might have to look at how you are set up as a team. ‘But I don’t mean it disrespectfully to anyone – we are playing Bury. " David Flitcroft team talk done. Just print that off in 84pt, and pin it on the back of the home dressing-room door.

Not many Italian teams have the financial clout to prise players away from Premier League clubs. Juve, perhaps, maybe AC Milan or Inter, but Italian football is going through a bad financial phase currently. Let's hope that's the case.

"...as the eagerly-anticipated £1.1m project nears completion." Just remind us again how much Saints training ground has cost to date. So it's down to the youngster to risk AIDS, Hepatitis B, and goodness knows what other foul diseases lie festering in the soil, or on the discarded hypodermic needles on the Septic Isle. It's the poor rookies who - after a strenuous session with Mark "The next George Best" (A. Ball) Kelly and former Salisbury boss Mikey Harris (affianced to Meridian's very own Sarah Gomme) - will switch on the showers to either find jets of scalding hot steam to burn their skin off, or freezing cold, chocolate brown water with chunks of rust in it, coming out of the shower heads. This, after finding all their clothes nicked from lockers which have no locks.

I don't think you need anybody to provide an answer to that question.

Instead of picking up kids from other teams, playing them for a few years in the academy and then selling them on, under Saggy-chops p****y adopted a far more successful strategy. Ignore any talented youngsters from your own patch (JWP), persuade your gun-running, child-maiming chairman to irresponsibly splash out a fortune he never really had on vastly-overpriced, internationals that the club could never really afford, don't pay them their wages, irresponsably rack up huge debts without a care in the world, dodge your way out of the £130m you owe, and then dupe fans to stump up their own money to keep the cadaver alive. That's how to become a good League Two club. It might have bought the FA Cup along the way, but who worries about a tin pot trophy like that these days.

And there's a woman on the front page of the October edition of Shoot! for the first time in the magazine's history, Manchester City's Steph Houghton. What is the world coming to?

I'll add my voice to those championing York. Although a Southerner born and bred, York is the most impressive northern city I've visited for things to see, picturesque streets and pubs. Undervalued by a lot of people, though, is East Sussex. You have the impressive South Downs, the coastal towns which include Rye, which is as picturesque as anywhere you'll see, and Romney Marsh, which is a bleakly beautiful place in winter.

I'll have a shiny shilling with anybody that Lovren makes a miraculous recovery in time to be fit for Liverpool's next Premier League game.

Just to set the record straight, he didn't HAVE to leave. There was no legal obligation. Nobody was threatening him or his family. There was no compulsion in any way, shape or form. He CHOSE to leave.

Interesting to hear Andy Awful's policy on tomorrow's JPT match (you remember the JPT, it was the tin-pot trophy we won, which they would never sully their proud heritage with). Competition rules say they have to play a certain percentage of first team players to take the competition half seriously and prevent clubs from sticking out stiffs and kids to manufacture their early exit. Pondering his squad selection tomorrow, Awford boasted; "I have 29 first-team squad players, some of whom need game time." TWENTY-NINE? That must be among the biggest squads in League Two and makes you wonder how they can sustain it. Of course, they couldn't possibly be living beyond their means again or dipping their sticky fingers into chariddy boxes to fund a promotion push.

MOTD were so busy sticking their tongues up Liverpool's backside that they let Lovren off the hook. On another note, I presume we don't regard Dean Hammond as a defector and are quite pleased he's getting Premier League game time at Leicester. Another great servant to the club who I certainly don't begrudge his time in the top flight late on his career.

Stevie G tenders his first application for the Liverpool manager's job. If Brenda was not looking over his shoulder previously, he'd better be now. There's a Scouser behind him with a big knife, ready to slip it effortlessly between his shoulder blades.

Of course, the perception is that it takes time for players to gel, and it's only to be expected that teams with a big influx of new players will struggle initially. Oh,....wait a minute. The former players who peddle this line as part of the campaign to protect the emperor's new clothes-style mystique of professionalism in football must hate Koeman as he has blown the myth of players needing time to gel and settle, out of the water. Why would the likes of Lallana, Lambert and Lovren, who have spent at least a season playing in the Premier League, need time to settle in at another Premier League club?